9-15 July 2013 | ComputerWeekly.com
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the 25 most influential women in UK IT
BP’s move to A hybrid cloud infrastructure
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The best way to present big data to the consumer The most strategy for outsourcing IT services influential Downtime women in IT Meet 25 inspirational women who have made significant achievements in a male-dominated industry
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 1 the week in it
Home Government & public sector Networking hardware HMRC gets £200m digital investment Computer genius Doug Engelbart News with hopes of saving £51m a year transferred to archive server, aged 88 HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) digital The inventor of the computer mouse, the 25 most service will receive £200m government Doug Engelbart, has died aged 88. His influential investment in a move expected to save first breakthrough in IT came in December women in UK IT £51m a year on administrative costs. The 1968, when he and a group of research- investment will enable two million people ers from the Stanford Research Institute BP’s move to to carry out transactions online by 2015- showed how users could each have their A hybrid cloud infrastructure 16, such as self-serving their repayments, own computer workstation connected viewing tax codes, updating personal to a shared computer system, with each details online and reporting additional having a private file space and groups of editor’s sources of income, said HMRC. users sharing a community space. comment
Hackers & cyber crime prevention Innovation, research & development Opinion Seventy cyber espionage campaigns Mid-sized UK IT companies lead hit the UK every month, says GCHQ Europe in R&D growth investment Buyer’s Guide TO UK intelligence agency GCHQ director Medium-sized IT companies in the UK HUMAN RESOURCES Iain Lobban has confirmed that the gov- will grow faster than the average this year, MANAGEMENT ernment is targeted by about 70 sophis- and plan to increase spending on research ticated cyber espionage campaigns every and development (R&D) by more than The best way to month. Business secrets are stolen “on any other sector, according to research. present big data an industrial scale” and foreign hackers The GE Capital report surveyed mid-sized to the consumer have penetrated some firms for up to two companies across all sectors in Europe, years, he told the BBC. including 91 UK IT companies. strategy for outsourcing IT services Government & public sector Government & public sector OFT investigates public sector IT NHS IT embraces open source outsourcing competitiveness Open source licensing agreements will Downtime The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has be a key feature in NHS IT, according to called on suppliers and buyers of IT ser- a report published last vices in the public sector to provide it with week. NHS England said access the latest it news via rss feed information about their experiences, as it it aimed to “develop a investigates the market for outsourcing vibrant market of prod- in government. The OFT wants to ensure ucts and solutions” for organisations taxpayers get the most for their money across the UK, all made available under an with rigorous standards of competition. open source licence model. n
LEEds gets wi-fi with phone boxes
Phone boxes across Leeds are set to be turned into Wi-Fi hot- spots by local telecoms company Aql. The Leodis project – an anagram of the Leeds Electronic Ordnance and Digital Information System and the old English name for the city – will see the firm revamp the iconic British installations by painting them blue and souping them up with wireless connectivity for passers-by to take advantage of. The phone boxes will house Aql’s networking equipment, pow- ered by solar energy. As well as being environmentally friendly, the installation will cause no disruption to residents, as no roads will need to be dug up for power or cabling.
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 2 the week in it
Home Strategy Transport & travel industry Gartner forecasts return to IT Bus transport operator Arriva puts its News investment as economy improves e-commerce platform on private cloud Global IT spending is set to reach $3.7tn UK bus operator Arriva has launched an the 25 most by 2014 as the economy improves, e-commerce platform hosted on a pri- influential according to Gartner’s Worldwide IT vate cloud service. The women in UK IT Spending Forecast. Spending on mobile platform is intended to access the latest it news via rss feed devices is set to increase by 6.5% in 2014 give customers up-to- BP’s move to to $740bn, compared to $695bn in 2013. the-minute service infor- A hybrid cloud infrastructure Gartner predicted expanded enterprise mation and route details on their mobile spending on e-commerce, social and devices and a process to improve their mobile as organisations boost customer ticket-buying experience, accessed by editor’s relationship systems. iPhone, Android devices and BlackBerrys. comment
Risk management Web software Opinion Indonesian student wins global Open Championship prepares website Kaspersky Lab security competition for 10,000 page requests a second Buyer’s Guide TO An entry from Indonesia’s Bandung The organisers of golf’s Open HUMAN RESOURCES Institute of Technology has won the Championship have configured the web- MANAGEMENT Kaspersky Lab Cyber Security for the Next site in anticipation of 10,000 webpage Generation 2013 international student requests a second from five million site The best way to conference competition. The winning pro- users during the four-day golf tourna- present big data ject – an application using a mobile near- ment. Organisers the R&A outsources the to the consumer field communications inspection device support and development of the website – was submitted by Firman Azhari. to IT services supplier Endava. strategy for outsourcing IT services Mobile networks Government & public sector EE confirms July date for doubling 4G Government commits an extra £250m speeds in 12 cities across the UK to superfast broadband budget Downtime Mobile operator EE has confirmed it will The government has committed an addi- double the speed of its 4G network in 12 tional £250m of superfast broadband cities from 4 July 2013 as it tries to attract spend to increase coverage to 95% of the new customers. The first locations for the UK by 2017. The announcement builds improved connectivity could get speeds on plans to provide nearly 90% of homes as high as 150Mbps, although some com- with access to fixed, superfast broadband mentators say an average of between by 2015. The government also announced 24Mbps and 30Mbps is more realistic. a further auction of 4G spectrum. n
software use in accountancy firms
Of 1,603 accountancy firms: Does your practice use an integrated suite of accountancy software?
10.36% Sage 17.22% Iris 18.47% CCH Thomson Reuters Digita 14.97% No, plans to implement 7.3% a solution in 12 months No, works in Excel, Outlook or similar 3.81% 27.89% Other
Source: Thomson Reuters, 2013
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 3 awards Home The 25 most influential women in IT News Computer Weekly’s search for the most influential women in UK IT in 2013 is the 25 most over. Those who made the grade are profiled here. Kayleigh Bateman reports influential women in UK IT he aim of compiling an annual list of Denise McDonagh, CTO, Home BP’s move to the top 25 most influential women in 2Office; former director of the A hybrid cloud UK IT is to focus on the role of women government’s G-Cloud programme infrastructure T in IT, recognise the most influential role mod- Denise McDonagh took up the els and discuss the vital part that female IT position of Home Office CTO editor’s leaders will take in making a difference to the on 1 June, having previously been comment future of the UK’s high-tech economy. programme director for the The winners – selected by a judging panel government’s cloud computing Opinion of employers and IT leaders from across the scheme, G-Cloud. McDonagh represents a industry and by Computer Weekly’s read- new breed of leaders, enabling innovation Buyer’s Guide TO ers – were announced at a special event in and focusing on building high-performing HUMAN RESOURCES London last week. teams of predominantly civil servant IT MANAGEMENT The 25 inspirational women who made it professionals. on to the 2013 list represent the role models The best way to that will be so important to the future diver- Catherine Doran, CIO, Royal present big data sity and success of the tech community. Mail Group to the consumer 3 The third Royal Mail CIO in less Joanna Shields, CEO and Chair of than 18 months, Catherine Doran strategy for 1Tech City Investment Organisation inherited a controversial IT transfor- outsourcing IT services Joanna Shields is an American- mation programme, as well as the British executive, currently splitting of the Post Office as part of serving as CEO and chair of Tech the reorganisation of the UK postal service. She Downtime City Investment Organisation is responsible for devising and delivering the IT and as the UK government’s strategy to transform the technology estate. business ambassador for digital industries. Previously, she led a company-wide transfor- Prior to this she was vice-president and mation programme at Network Rail. general manager of Facebook in Europe. Before Facebook, she was president of Wendy Hall, professor of people networks at AOL, a position she 4computer science, University of assumed after the acquisition of Bebo by Southampton; founder of Web Science AOL. At Bebo, she served as CEO, and prior Research Initiative to this she was managing director for Wendy Hall is founding director Google Europe, Russia, Middle East & – along with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Africa. In February 2013, she was assessed professor Nigel Shadbolt and as one of the 100 most powerful women in Daniel J. Weitzner – of the Web the UK by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4. Science Research Initiative, Women in IT: Take charge of your career path to success
Women in
tech think hemera /T hinkstock differently to men in tech, say industry experts
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 4 awards
Home which was launched in 2006 as long-term Angela Morrison, CIO, Direct research collaboration between the 6Line Group News University of Southampton and MIT. She is Angela Morrison has been CIO of a fellow of the BCS, the Royal Academy of Direct Line Group (DLG) – for- the 25 most Engineering, the Institute of Engineering and merly RBS Insurance – for three influential Technology, and the Royal Society. years, managing business tech- women in UK IT nology services, which shapes, Lesley Cowley, CEO, builds, runs and governs IT for DLG. BP’s move to 5Nominet Insurance was a new sector for Morrison, A hybrid cloud infrastructure Under Lesley Cowley’s leadership, having previously spent 18+ years in food Nominet has become a trusted retail and IT, 10 of which were at director guardian of a vital part of the UK level and included being a member of editor’s internet economy, providing Sainsbury’s operating board, where she was comment services that are relied on by responsible for the insourcing of the IT millions of businesses and consumers. function and its subsequent transformation Opinion Cowley serves on the Nominations to support the business’s recovery plans. Committee and the Development Working Buyer’s Guide TO Group, she is chair of Icann’s Country Code › Women in technology: Why women HUMAN RESOURCES Names Supporting Organisation, and is a communicate differently from men MANAGEMENT fellow of a number of respected bodies. › Women in tech: CIOs talk IT gender roles
The best way to present big data to the consumer Interview: Joanna Shields, Tech City CEO – the most influential woman in UK IT 2013 strategy for outsourcing IT services Companies need to make it more attractive for women to stay in the work- force for longer, according to Joanna Shields, CEO of Tech City and winner of Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Woman in UK IT 2013 award. Downtime As the former managing director of Facebook Europe, and with 27 years of experience in technology, Shields believes businesses should be doing more to create an environment that attracts women to the tech industry and helps them stay. Shields was a graduate student in Washington DC when she took a job as a research analyst on Capitol Hill. Working for National Digital, she entered the world of digital technology just as it was emerging. “It was in the business of transmitting pictures over phone lines for the first time. I remember seeing the technology, which is a normal thing today, but I remember thinking, ‘this is it – this is the technology that is going to change the world’,” she says. “As soon as I finished my MBA, I jumped in my car and drove across the US to Silicon Valley, where I took a job as a product manager for an imaging electronics company that was creating chips, so I ended up on the hardware side.” On challenges she faced as a woman, Shields says: “I never compromised my looks – I decided Tech City startups to be who I am. I never wore the boxy suits or tried to dress like a man or act like a man; I was struggling to myself, and that, over a certain period of time, tended to make some folks underestimate me.” acquire capital She set up her first international operation in the UK in 1990 – when “it was a very different for further picture for women” – and says she is encouraged by how many women are starting their own growth businesses now. “It’s amazing – there’s this rising tide of successful women entrepreneurs in the UK. I have the privilege of working in Tech City, the East London cluster which is really becoming Tech City the hotbed of ideas and creativity, and there are so many women-led businesses and I find that names really encouraging.” Facebook executive Shields says diverse teams are important to any business: “Women are 51% of the population Joanna Shields so we need to be represented in every part of life, and I think IT teams are an excellent example as CEO of that. You need well-rounded experience, not just in terms of the sexes, but also in age.”
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 5 awards
Home Martha Lane Fox, UK government money for charity without putting their 7digital champion; Chair of Go On hands deeper in their pockets. Testament to News UK and the government’s Digital the company’s success, Everyclick recently Advisory Board won the People’s Choice Award for Most the 25 most Martha Lane Fox is the UK’s Promising Internet Company at Internet influential digital champion and the founder World 2013. women in UK IT of Go On UK, which she chairs. She is also chair of the Sue Black, founder,
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 6 awards
Home Gillian Arnold, chair of leadership roles at Onyx Software and 14BCSWomen, founder of Tectre Peregrine, living in both the US and Europe. News Gillian Arnold has 30 years’ experience in the IT industry, 22 Claire Vyvyan, general manager the 25 most of these at IBM. She has under- 18and executive director, large influential taken customer-facing technical, institutions, Dell UK women in UK IT sales, business development, Claire Vyvyan is general manager strategic marketing and consultancy roles. and executive director, large BP’s move to Now retired from IBM, Arnold has interest in institutions, at Dell UK, and A hybrid cloud infrastructure encouraging more women into the science recently acted as general manager and technology sectors and has chaired a for Dell’s public sector business. forum for IT trade body Intellect. She sits on She was previously director and general editor’s the board of directors for the UKRC for manager of Dell’s Commercial Business Group comment Women in SET and is chair for BCSWomen. in the UK and Netherlands. Before rejoining Dell in April 2011, Vyvyan was the global client Opinion Kate Craig-Wood, managing director for BT Group at Microsoft. 15director, Memset; Intellect Buyer’s Guide TO board member Bernadette Wightman, managing HUMAN RESOURCES Kate Craig-Wood founded 19director, partner organisation, MANAGEMENT Memset with her brother, Nick, in emerging markets, Cisco 2002, leading the firm to become Bernadette Wightman leads the The best way to one of the UK’s top cloud and largest channel sales operation present big data hosting providers. She chairs for Cisco outside the US, with to the consumer Intellect’s climate change group, as well as more than 2,000 registered sitting on the trade body’s main and opera- partners transacting in excess of strategy for tions boards. Recently she co-led the tech- outsourcing IT services nical strand of phase two of the Cabinet Office’s G-Cloud and App Store project. Judging Panel Downtime Jacqueline de Rojas, vice- 16president and general manager, The list of the 25 most influential women UK and Ireland, CA Technologies in UK IT was selected by a judging panel Jacqueline de Rojas is vice-presi- of employers and IT leaders from across dent and general manager, UK & the industry, including: Ireland, at CA Technologies. She is n India Gary-Martin, managing director responsible for all aspects of sales, and global COO, investment banking marketing and service throughout technology & operations, JP Morgan the region. Her 25 years of experience in sales n Maggie Berry, founder, Women management is helping CA Technologies to in Technology grow revenues and extend the provision of IT n Sheila Flavell, COO, FDM Group management software and solutions. De n Sarah Burnett, representing the Rojas has previously performed leadership BCSWomen group; research vice- roles at McAfee, Cartesis, Business Objects, president, Nelson Hall Legent and Informix. n Eileen Brown, chair of Intellect’s women in technology committee; CEO, Amastra Aileen Allkins, vice-president, n Belinda Parmar, author of Little Miss 17Worldwide Software Support, HP Geek; CEO, Lady Geek Aileen Allkins is responsible for n Kayleigh Bateman, special projects HP’s Software Support organisa- editor, Computer Weekly; editor, CW tion and its credo of “Exceed Europe Expectations” – a vision she n Bryan Glick, editor in chief, Computer developed over a career dedicated Weekly to IT support. Prior to HP, she held global n …and by a reader vote on our website.
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 7 awards
Home 90% of Cisco’s UK and Irish business. Jenny Griffiths, CEO, Wightman is also executive sponsor for 23Snap Fashion News Cisco’s Connected Women Network, set up Snap Fashion was founded by to inspire and attract the best female talent 25-year-old computer science the 25 most into the IT industry. graduate Jenny Griffiths in 2012. influential The business used the promise of women in UK IT Cary Marsh, CEO, Technology Strategy Board fund- 20MyDeo.com ing to attract private investors and develop BP’s move to Cary Marsh launched Mydeo in its novel search engine. Since then, it has A hybrid cloud infrastructure 2005 following a government won the prestigious $175,000 Cisco BIG research and development grant award and the Decoded Fashion startup for technical innovation. She has pitch. It is now planning to launch an Android editor’s since gone on to raise over version of the app, a menswear version and comment £500,000 in funding. Mydeo became the first take its technology into other retail markets. and only service to be fully integrated into Opinion Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker software. › Women in the workplace: Breaking into Mydeo provides high-quality streaming video a male-dominated IT industry Buyer’s Guide TO hosting to more than 250,000 individuals, › Women in leadership roles in IT should guide HUMAN RESOURCES communities and businesses. MANAGEMENT Lesley Sewell, CIO, Post Office Lucy Dimes, CEO, Alcatel The best way to 21Group 24Lucent UK present big data Lesley Sewell joined the Post Lucy Dimes was appointed CEO to the consumer Office in April 2010 from of Alcatel-Lucent UK & Ireland Northern Rock, where she had in April 2011. Previously, she strategy for been managing director for IT was managing director of group outsourcing IT services since 2005. She is responsible & Openreach service opera- for the development and delivery of IT tions at BT. She was also a member of the strategy in support of the business transfor- BT Operate executive board and BT Group Downtime mation plans, delivering a transformed IT equality & diversity board. estate and operating model. Kirstin Duffield, managing Ursula Morgenstern, CEO, 25director, Morning Data 22Atos UK & Ireland Kirstin Duffield took the helm Ursula Morgenstern has been of Morning Data in 2006 and the CEO at Atos UK and Ireland has led the company to its since January 2012, having new development centre previously held the role of chief location and the introduction of operating officer. She joined its total support and systems package. Atos Origin in August 2004 as head of She has spearheaded the company’s enterprise solutions and worked her way approach to client service and product up. She was a partner at KPMG for four support, combined with long-term years and general manager at K&V cooperative relationships within the Information Systems. Morning Data community. n
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 8 analysis Home How BP rigged its IT for the future News
the 25 most with a hybrid cloud infrastructure influential women in UK IT Legal obligations and scale gave the oil firm pause for thought when it started moving from a vast legacy IT estate to the cloud, writes Archana Venkatraman BP’s move to A hybrid cloud infrastructure or a multinational company with BP moved some of its IT services to the cloud BP 87,000 employees and a distributed to overcome issues of legacy infrastructure editor’s IT infrastructure, moving to the cloud comment F posed a challenge. But BP took a cautious and calculated approach to bridge its cloud Opinion gap, using a mix of private cloud, public cloud and in-house IT infrastructure. Buyer’s Guide TO Speaking at the Cloud World Forum 2013 in HUMAN RESOURCES London, BP CIO Dana Deasy said: “Like every MANAGEMENT large company, we had legacy IT and some- how had to burst to the cloud.” The best way to BP – which had the fifth largest revenue present big data stream for any company in the world in 2012 to the consumer – has a large and expensive IT infrastructure, including 90,000 PCs, 57 petabytes of data, strategy for 340 WAN connections and 17,000 servers. outsourcing IT services “Our IT services are delivered by 3,500 employees and contractors, as well as 7,000 staff from managed service providers. It is a Downtime big, mixed world,” said Deasy. The oil and gas company wanted to migrate some of its workloads to a cloud environment to improve efficiency and opti- mise performance and security, he said. But the IT team needed to take a calcu- lated approach because of the size of the company’s IT estate and legal and regulatory platform for digital communication services. compliance requirements. But it was not as simple as picking a cloud Its on-premise IT infrastructure strategy provider and moving the communications was designed around systems for sensitive system to its platform. data, highly customised applications, stable “We wanted best-of-breed cloud solu- workloads and legal and regulatory sys- tions for every feature, but there is no single tems. Meanwhile, its off-premise IT strategy provider that can offer the best technological BP was focused around testing and develop- solution for each of our needs,” said Deasy. standardises ment, collaborative platforms and customer “It is difficult to pick one service that fits all finance and engagement systems. use cases.” accounting The IT team chose nine cloud service through Accenture Digital communications providers to provide a mix of infrastructure The IT team began its migration by mov- as a service (IaaS) and software as a service ing the company’s digital communications (SaaS) to meet its cloud requirements. BP rolls out global infrastructure to the cloud. The IaaS platform, delivered by Amazon cloud for Its website is hosted in a cloud envi- Web Services (AWS), is designed to auto- workforce ronment, as part of an end-to-end cloud scale, according to Deasy.
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 9 analysis
Home Cloud agility in action BP Using cloud’s agility for digital communica- News tions proved useful for BP during the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Considered the 25 most one of the largest oil spills in the industry’s influential history, it led to several environmental inci- women in UK IT dents, endangering locals and marine life. “During the incident we had to suddenly BP’s move to provision more IT resources,” said Deasy. A hybrid cloud infrastructure According to the company’s chief cloud architect, Paul McMohan, visitors to BP’s website increased from 15,000 to 17 million editor’s during the period of the oil spill. “That was comment the scale we had to provision for,” he said. The cloud platform gave BP the ability Opinion to meet those demands as well as mak- ing moves to manage expectations: “Use Buyer’s Guide TO of cloud in digital services also gave us the HUMAN RESOURCES ability to put out new marketing campaigns “We decided to deliver our email services MANAGEMENT quickly during that time,” said Deasy. through private cloud platform as a service,” said Deasy. “Today, our employees have a The best way to Google-like email experience.” present big data BP put Microsoft Exchange 2010 into a pri- to the consumer “There was cost, vate cloud from T-Systems in 2012 to benefit there were legal from pay-per-use functionality and flexibility. strategy for outsourcing IT services and regulatory Resolving obstacles and the future BP’s cloud implementation was not without requirements and we its obstacles. “There was cost, there were Downtime had to develop a new legal and regulatory requirements and we had to develop a new approach to security,” approach to security” said Deasy. One of the toughest challenges was to Dana Deasy, BP relinquish control of the IT, he said. It took a lot of confidence to believe in a service that is not physically there to see. Having benefited from cloud’s agility and Besides being a public cloud provider, scalability, BP’s IT team is now building a Amazon also offers a virtual private cloud. technology strategy to look at the cloud eco- This allows users to provision a logically system. “When we started, AWS was leading isolated section of its cloud where users can and we were testing and developing our ser- launch resources in a virtual network they vices with it. But now, the cloud marketplace define. “A majority of AWS customers are is evolving fast,” said McMohan. demanding The company is assessing AWS, Microsoft Amazon virtual Azure and Google’s cloud services. “We are › How to build a hybrid storage cloud › Managing the hybrid cloud model private cloud,” also looking at traditional service providers, › Hybrid cloud management myths said McMohan. such as IBM, and then there is OpenStack, BP’s IT team which is maturing too,” he said. also moved BP is building a cloud framework and a rule the company’s global email services to book as guidance to its future cloud use. the cloud. BP has 160,000 mail boxes “In the coming years, we will expand our and nearly 10 million email transactions cloud deployment for a wider range of appli- every month. cations,” said Deasy. n
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 10 Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit 2013
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HOT TOPICS: • Mobile security • Cloud computing and security • Cyber security • Web application security • Business continuity and disaster recovery • BYOD • Compliance & regulation • Risk management editor’s comment Home Only the men in IT News Computer Weekly/ComputerWeekly.com 1st Floor, 3-4a Little Portland Street, London W1W 7JB the 25 most can bring the changes General enquiries influential women in UK IT needed for the women 020 7186 1400 Editorial
BP’s move to his time last year, after we announced the first Editor in chief: Bryan Glick A hybrid cloud 020 7186 1424 infrastructure of our now-annual list of the 25 most influential [email protected] women in IT, this column explained why we do T Managing editor (technology): Cliff Saran not want to have to write about the issue of women in 020 7186 1421 editor’s IT anymore. [email protected] comment Simply put, if we had a workforce in IT that reflected Head of premium content: Bill Goodwin 020 7186 1418 the diversity of the audience that the IT industry seeks to [email protected] Opinion serve, we would no longer need to. And as long as that Services editor: Karl Flinders remains a failing, it’s an issue we will continue to high- 020 7186 1423 Buyer’s Guide TO light, and we will continue to recognise the female role [email protected] HUMAN RESOURCES models who are at the forefront of making a change. Security editor: Warwick Ashford MANAGEMENT This year’s list of women is a reflection of that goal. 020 7186 1419 [email protected] Fifteen years ago, we were writing about how it was The best way to Networking editor: Jennifer Scott an embarrassment for the tech sector to have less than 020 7186 1404 present big data 20% of its workforce female. Today, that figure has still [email protected] to the consumer not changed. Special projects editor: Kayleigh Bateman So there is clearly a bigger problem to be tackled, and 020 7186 1415 [email protected] strategy for it is this: What to do about the men in IT. outsourcing Men remain the primary decision-makers in IT recruit- Datacentre editor: Archana Venkatraman IT services 020 7186 1411 ment and career development. And while many of those [email protected]
men will genuinely express their hope to see more Storage editor: Antony Adshead Downtime women in the technology workplace, very few actually 07779 038528 do anything about it. [email protected] As a male-dominated profession, it is only really Business applications editor: Brian McKenna 020 7186 1414 the men who can change things. Successful, talented [email protected] women will always do well – but they are too much of Editorial content assistant: Caroline Baldwin an exception to be able to make a difference across the 020 7186 1425 whole sector. To effect widespread change – sorry guys, [email protected] that’s entirely up to you. Production editor: Claire Cormack 020 7186 1417 This is not about recruiting women for the sake of [email protected] recruiting women. It is simply unsustainable for the UK Senior sub-editor: Jason Foster technology scene to take its rightful place in the econ- 020 7186 1420 omy without the broadest range of skills available, and [email protected] the diversity that demands. Sub-editor: Philip Jones 020 7186 1416 What will it take for men to take the issue of “women [email protected] in IT” seriously? That’s a tough one to answer – and we would be very keen to hear from anyone who has any DISPLAY ADVERTISING suggestions. Nobody has found the solution yet. Sales director: Brent Boswell But meanwhile – to all men in IT: the lack of women 07584 311889 in IT is your problem to solve. Only you can bring about [email protected] the change needed. n Group events manager: Jonathan Palma 0207 186 1430 [email protected]
Bryan Glick Editor in chief
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 12 opinion Home Reclaiming the role of the CIO News Joe McDonagh sums up the real value a CIO can bring to large organisations the 25 most influential women in UK IT hile it has become increasingly on being able to work effectively with and fashionable to question the through other senior functional leaders. BP’s move to essential value of the role of chief The CIO regularly plays the role of political A hybrid cloud W infrastructure information officer (CIO) in large, complex broker as there are rarely sufficient resources organisations, it is unfortunate that much of available to address all the needs of senior this discourse is both self-serving and with- functional managers. In addition, the CIO is editor’s out any solid foundation. mindful of shadow IT resources embedded comment For the most part, this constant harangu- in core and support business functions. To a ing is a product of vested interests in the strong CIO, the location of resources is less Opinion media, IT advisory business and academia important than proactively influencing how alike. Taken together, these forces coalesce such resources are deployed. Buyer’s Guide TO in a manner that places the role under con- HUMAN RESOURCES stant critique and possible criticism. MANAGEMENT Having collaborated extensively over the he role of the past decade with executive and technology “T CIO The best way to management teams, there is no doubt that is important to the present big data the role of the CIO is essential to large, com- to the consumer plex organisations. Rather than the menac- strategic development ing message so often touted by the IT advice strategy for business, the role of the CIO is of profound and ongoing outsourcing importance to the strategic development and IT services transformation of large, ongoing transformation of such organisations. From a leadership perspective, the CIO complex organisations” Downtime attends to three shared agendas on an ongoing basis. Third, the CIO works with his or her senior Shared agendas management team in shaping the wide range First, the CIO works collaboratively with of IT services which will be provided across the executive management team in terms the enterprise. Here the CIO has to keep a of shaping the strategic development of the constant eye on the differentiated nature of enterprise. The CIO brings to bear unique services in the areas of strategic develop- expertise in terms of integrating the realms ment, programme delivery and operations/ of strategy and IT with particular emphases infrastructure services. How the IT spend is on the manner in which modern IT systems distributed across these domains is critical offer the potential to transform the wider as strong CIOs are keen to release resources business system in which the enterprise is from operations/infrastructure with a view to As embedded. The CIO’s role in this strategic increasing investment in strategic develop- companies conversation at the apex of an organisation ment and programme delivery. n become more is both essential and non-negotiable. data-driven, Second, the CIO works collaboratively with the CIO role senior functional managers who are required Joe McDonagh is associate profes- keeps on changing to exploit the full potential of IT in transform- sor of organisation development ing both core and support business func- and IT at the School of Business, tions. This emphasis on functional transfor- Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Free download: mation draws on the CIO’s expertise in the The DNA of effective management of change. Here, the This is an edited version. Click to the CIO CIO knows that success is highly contingent read the full article online.
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 13 buyer’s Guide
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News Using software to support T hinkstock the 25 most influential women in UK IT your firm’s creative stock
BP’s move to A hybrid cloud Organisations may already have infrastructure the blueprint for their next big thing without knowing it. Clive Longbottom editor’s reports on how human capital comment management systems can unlock the company’s most valuable assets Opinion
Buyer’s Guide TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
The best way to present big data to the consumer
strategy for outsourcing IT services
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Buyer’sHR management guide part 2 of 3
lthough the main focus on enterprise software seems to be around customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource management (ERP), one area that often gets overlooked is the workforce. Organisations will have systems in place, such as from Oracle or SAP, but these Aare often seen as the poor cousin to the ERP and CRM systems, with little strategic focus on the real capabilities required from an HR system. Having an excellent technology platform to log all interaction with suppliers and with cus- tomers is good for business, but software is also required to look after the employees . What should be the cornerstones of an HR software architecture? Payroll is clearly one of them, but many other HR processes are paper-based. For example, many organisations still use manual systems to manage their expenses, such as a word processor or a spreadsheet. Guide to It is also apparent that the UK workforce is leaving around £330m per annum on the table human capital management in unclaimed expenses. Why? Existing systems are not flexible enough to allow for expenses software where a receipt is not available, so car park expenses, underground fares and the odd cup of coffee with a customer are being paid for by the employee directly. Does this matter? What is Yes it does. An employee who believes they are funding the business themselves will not be human capital tempted to go that extra mile for the business in other areas. Expense management is the management? next thing that needs to be looked at.
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Home Next comes vacation and sickness management. Some companies will be working on a flexitime model, where employees can work extra hours on some days and build up time News off; some will be working on multiple shift patterns; others will be running a fairly standard 40-hour working week. All these variations on working patterns need to be allowed for. the 25 most Everyone is entitled to time off, even if this is due to sickness, maternity or paternity leave influential – but where a person is off sick or is using up statutory paternity/maternity leave, this needs women in UK IT to be put through to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as well, so that payments due to the business itself can be calculated and paid back as applicable. An employee should be BP’s move to able to use a self-service portal to see what time they are allowed off and to request or book A hybrid cloud infrastructure vacation time in a clear and easy manner. It should also be apparent that expenses, vacation and sickness management are also intrinsically linked to editor’s payroll, so trying to keep these areas completely apart comment with separate solutions will only lead to problems in “Rules that making sure that everything does work together seam- Opinion lessly. Expenses and salary should be paid at the same underpin much time for most people; any impact on salary through HR are driven Buyer’s Guide TO sickness needs to be logged in a manner that makes HUMAN RESOURCES reporting this as easy as possible so that the employee, by legislation MANAGEMENT the business and HMRC can see what has happened throughout the year at a granular and, for the business and on-premise The best way to and HMRC, an aggregated basis. systems can present big data Indeed, with the latest changes to how pay is dealt to the consumer with, everything has to be managed on a near real-time fall behind” basis to meet HMRC’s RTI requirements. strategy for outsourcing IT services Knowledge and training Training is an HR issue and systems need to tie in to ensure that each employee, contractor and consultant gets the right training they need, according to the tasks and projects they Downtime are working on at any one time. This collective group of human resources also has a value to the business that few organi- sations are making the most of. Held in the heads of the people are thoughts and ideas on how a task or process could be carried out better, making the employee happier and probably saving the company money at the same time. Some may have innovative ideas for new prod- ucts or services which they are keeping to themselves for no other reason than they believe there is no way to get their idea to the business in the right way. Managing the training and intellectual capital of human resources is often referred to as human capital management (HCM) and has come on a long way from the computer-based training (CBT) modules and IBM Lotus Notes knowledge bases of old. Companies such as Imaginatix, Infor and Oracle offer systems that work around the concept of capturing ideas from employees and providing recognition to those who provide ideas that lead to a useful outcome to the business. Part of HCM is also around listening to the people involved and responding to their needs as appropriate. Companies such as Confirmit and Verint provide software that manages not only employee but also consultant, contractor, supplier and customer feedback and can be used to help in adding to the intellectual property base being built up in other areas of HCM.
Getting people in and out Employee churn will happen. For a 1,000 user organisation with a 10% churn, 100 employ- ees will leave and 100 will have to be taken on, just to stand still. If the organisation is growing at 10%, then an extra 100 people will need to be dealt with – that’s 300 adds and deletions that have to be accommodated, never mind all the amendments such as address changes, changes of surname on marriage and so on.
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Home On top of this are the more itinerant workers from the contractor and consultant pools: The overall impact for a modern business is in dealing with thousands to tens of thousands News of adds, changes and deletions (ACDs) to an HR system where each has a knock-on effect throughout other systems. the 25 most Recruitment also has to be a part of the overall solution. Indeed, if there is a need to bring influential on board 200 new staff a year, it averages out as one person per working day. If each position women in UK IT gets only 10 applications, 2,000 people will have to be dealt with – and some jobs are attract- ing thousands of applications in today’s economic conditions. BP’s move to A further important part of any HR system is in managing those who are not direct employ- A hybrid cloud infrastructure ees. Most organisations now have a mix of employees, consultants and contractors working for them, and it is important to treat each according to their needs. With such a varied and changing group of resources involved, HR also has to play a direct editor’s part in the rest of the technology environment. For example, as soon as a person is put into comment the HR system as a resource, this should set in place a whole raft of tasks, for example, set up a computer account for them and provision the software services they will need to Opinion carry out their job, as well as a telephone account, security passes and so on. When they leave, stating this in their HR records should block their access to all the services they were Buyer’s Guide TO provided with. HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT The HR architecture challenge An additional problem is that the rules that underpin a The best way to lot of HR are driven by legislation and on-premise sys- “It is key to present big data tems run the risk of falling behind the times with what to the consumer laws they use in their rules engines. identify where Online systems can be kept up to date more effec- the interfaces strategy for tively and the service providers responsible for them outsourcing IT services can concentrate on keeping them up to date with the between any relevant laws, ensuring their software provides the cor- rect support. chosen systems Downtime HCM solutions are moving to the cloud. The likes of Workday, (which offers a more complete cloud-based are needed” HR offering), and SAP’s SuccessFactors offer intel- lectual property management systems based around ideation and jam sessions, with employee recognitions and other modules included, such as succession management to ensure that the loss of key personnel through resignation, sacking or other causes does not have a massive negative impact on the business. However, if the decision is to go to a cloud-based overall HR solution, the main issue will be in pulling the various bits and pieces together in a manner that is seamless and yet still does effectively support the business. This is where cloud stand- ards and application programming interfaces (APIs) are › Tools for talent management important, areas where cloud is still at its most deficient. › The new face of human capital management › Invest in human capital with talent analytics This can cause issues when a company looks to using cloud as an overall solution but should not be an insur- mountable issue. Already, many will be using an exter- nal online service such as APT or Sage One for payroll and the likes of Concur or KDS for expense management. Over time, it is likely that HR systems will become more cloud-based and sufficiently well integrated. At the moment, it is key to identify where the interfaces between any chosen systems are needed and concentrate on ensuring that these are managed in a manner that avoids any confusion and issues for the business. n
Clive Longbottom is co-founder of analyst company Quocirca
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 16 BIG DATA
Home News Forget the fancy graphics the 25 most While pie charts may work for data professionals, big data specialist Chris influential women in UK IT Osborne tells Bill Goodwin why they may not be best for the consumer
BP’s move to A hybrid cloud infrastructure
editor’s comment
Opinion
Buyer’s Guide TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
The best way to present big data to the consumer
strategy for outsourcing IT services T hinkstock
Downtime f there is one thing big data specialist Chris Osborne has learned after five years of work- ing with big data, it is that the public don’t like graphs. A lot of people have problems just setting the thermostat at home, so expecting them to make sense of pie chart is a step too far, he told CIOs at Computer Weekly’s CW500 Club for IT leaders. IOsborne is the big data product manager at Alertme.com, a company that is using technol- ogy to help people monitor the energy consumption in their homes. He has learned the hard way just how difficult it is to turn big data into products and services the public can understand. “An important thing to remember is that the average reading age of a UK online consumer is 12 years old,” he says. “That means that whenever you design anything on the internet, it has to be simple enough for a 12 year old to understand.” Pie charts may be common currency among data professionals, but user testing has shown that time and again ordinary people find them difficult to interpret. Osborne says it is far better to present the information in the form of a simple ordered list CW500 in than to make people jump through the mental hoops trying to work out whether the blue the City: IT segment of a chart is bigger than the green. innovation in financial Learning a valuable lesson early services Osborne’s first foray into big data offered some valuable lessons in the difficulties of work- ing with the public. At first sight, an application to help people find properties in London in CW500: commuting distance of their work seemed like a good idea. Shared services The application allowed users to specify how much time they wanted to spend commuting, present challenges and how much they wanted to spend and what sort of property they were looking for. By combin- opportunities ing the users preferences with data on London’s transport network, the app was able recom- for CIOs mend suitable properties.
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Home “In some ways, it was very successful,” says Osborne. “I was very proud of the style. THE FOUR RULES News It was very advanced for its time and it had OF INSIGHT some quite complex data processing. the 25 most “But it completely failed.” n Personalise – The application should tell influential With hindsight, Osborne (pictured below the user something relevant to them. women in UK IT right) realised that the application was n Accessible – Data should be simple and unsuccessful because he had not taken the accessible. Hide data that is not relevant BP’s move to time to understand how people actually buy to the user. Don’t represent data in the A hybrid cloud form of graphs or pie charts. infrastructure and talk about property. “Most people who had bought a house, n Actionable – Don’t give consumers or were looking for a house, would nearly information unless they can do something editor’s always say, I want to live here. I am looking with it. comment for a house there,” he says. n Instinctive – The application should be Only then do they decide what type of based on an understanding of people’s Opinion property they want, how many bedrooms, behaviour, and the context in which they whether they are looking for a garden and make choices and decisions. Buyer’s Guide TO whether the garden is south-facing. HUMAN RESOURCES “I made the fundamental mistake in not Source: Chris Osborne MANAGEMENT understanding the context and environment of how people make a decision,” he says. The best way to This, and other experiences have helped Osborne to put together what he calls his Four Rules present big data of Insight (see box); four rules of thumb that help to make big data accessible to the public. to the consumer Today, Osborne is putting those lessons into practice at Alertme.com, a company of 100 people that is working on ways to provide the public with useful data by connecting intelli- strategy for gent devices in their home to the internet. outsourcing IT services One of the firm’s goals is to take data from the 45 million smart electricity meters that will be rolled out across the UK by 2019 and convert that into information that will mean some- thing to consumers. Downtime Osborne’s starting point was to find out how people talk about their electricity consump- tion. They don’t talk about how many kilowatt hours their fridge uses a week or how much they spend per hour on electricity. But they do talk about their actions, such as charging a mobile phone or cooking a chicken. So Alertme.com’s challenge is to find ways to present electricity consumption to consumers in a way they can understand. “We have sensors in our homes and in our researchers’ homes. We can monitor what energy people use and break it down and show users exactly where all the energy is going in their home, which is a great thing for consumers,” he says.
How to present the findings If there is one thing Osborne is clear about, it is that whatever the answer is, it is definitely does not include a graph or a pie chart. And certainly not the main stay of big data visualisation used in businesses – the dashboard. “Consumers are not interested in them and we should not expect them to be. CW500: They are interested in convenience and they are interested in having informa- Five tion presented to them in a way they don’t have to think about it,” he says. technology The challenge is to take the pain away, and only share information that is rele- forces that will change vant. Hiring someone from a non-IT background to train as a coder can help. businesses They help to bring a consumer’s perspective, says Osborne, who forever moved into big data after studying geography at university. “If people need to make a decision, guide them on how they CW Buyer’s could make it, but the end goal is a lot of automation and Guide: Big Data removing of complexity, rather than generating lots of Infrastructure data,” he says. n
computerweekly.com 9-15 July 2013 18 Outsourcing
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News With the advent of cloud, How to make commoditisation and third the 25 most party innovation, the options for influential women in UK IT outsourcing your IT services can prove sense of your bewilderingly complex. Karl Flinders
BP’s move to looks at how to devise a strategy A hybrid cloud outsourcing infrastructure
editor’s options comment
Opinion
Buyer’s Guide TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
The best way to present big data to the consumer
strategy for outsourcing IT services
Downtime T hinkstock
nce upon a time, IT outsourcing was a choice between doing it or not, but – with maturing cloud-based services and the arrival of new suppliers – there are now more options to consider and hurdles to overcome. At the same time, the stakes have risen as IT becomes ever more critical to the Oefficiency and competitiveness of the business. As IT outsourcing increases, procurement teams grow and IT departments shrink. Cost, consumerisation, commoditisation and digitisation are all considerations today. And there are many more departments involved. Procurement teams, supplier relationship man- agement operations, the chief financial officer (CFO) and the IT users of the business can all exert their influence in outsourcing programmes now. IT sourcing In the past, outsourcing was purely about cutting fixed costs. But while contracting a sup- complexity plier to run a service at a lower cost might remain the biggest reason, its importance is now makes supplier diminishing. Do you want to cut costs or do you want to innovate? Or do you want both? management a priority Decisions, decisions, decisions Today, executives involved in outsourcing have more than one option for every aspect of Are there their IT. Mark Lewis, outsourcing lawyer at Berwin Leighton Paisner, says the biggest decision too many facing businesses is whether to move to the cloud or use traditional IT outsourcing. options for outsourcing If a traditional IT outsourcing model is chosen, decisions about the shape and scope of the datacentre deal are always a challenge, says Lewis. But the options are now better known, as are the operations? suppliers’ offerings, the suppliers themselves and their delivery models.
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Home But the cloud brings different challenges. “With cloud, the decision process is still complex and difficult for buyers,” says Lewis. “First, News do they understand cloud offerings? Then, public or private? How do they manage the data risks and the other risks of public cloud they keep hearing about? How easy will it be for them the 25 most to integrate cloud in their IT environment? And who are the best cloud suppliers for them?” influential He adds that the cloud advisory and integrator market is not as developed as in the IT out- women in UK IT sourcing market, so there is still a high level of complexity for buyers. The digitisation of business – itself driven by cloud computing – is another example of a BP’s move to technology in flux that, while promising substantial benefits, is giving sourcing professionals A hybrid cloud infrastructure a headache. New technologies in the digital arena, such as mobile and business intelligence (BI), add complexity to the sourcing process. According to a Forrester survey of global sourcing executives, 65% of respondents say they editor’s are excited about the changes these digital technologies will bring; but 62% say their busi- comment nesses lack the requisite skills to make the change; and 68% believe they do not have the right policies and business practices. Opinion Forrester analyst Liz Herbert says supplier manage- ment teams need a new approach if they are to harness Buyer’s Guide TO the skills of the abundance of little-known suppliers. She HUMAN RESOURCES says businesses must change the rules of engagement “Procurement MANAGEMENT with suppliers, by rebalancing risk and value. Tridip Saha, head of sales in Europe at Indian IT ser- functions often The best way to vices firm Mindtree, blogged recently about the confu- determine present big data sion caused for CIOs by digitisation, because of the to the consumer different approaches IT services providers take. the services He says large, consulting-led IT service providers see strategy for digitisation as being “all about the strategy to transform contracted outsourcing your business, with IT on top; the digital agencies view IT services and that is it as being all about user experience/customer journey, and they don’t bother about technology. not always Downtime “The platform providers see it as all about having the right underlying technology platform, with no need helpful” for writing custom code ever again. Domain-centric IT service providers believe they have the golden solution, Mark Lewis, Berwin created exactly for your industry, and ask the customer Leighton Paisner how much of it they want.” He says most of the other suppliers take one of these approaches, depending on who you talk to.
Managing multiples Digitisation and cloud computing stimulate competition between suppliers. Today, it is highly unlikely that a business will sign an all-encompassing, long-term contract with one supplier or even a small consortium of suppliers. Today, a big business might have thousands of suppliers, many of which are unofficial and arrive through users’ choices. Not every business has the resources available to micro-manage a huge, multisourced IT delivery model in the same vein as a company such as BP. The oil giant has the financial clout to not only make multiple suppliers deliver over and above expectations, but also has the resources to make sure they do. BP cut $800m in costs in a couple of years, while retaining a multisupplier IT outsourcing environment. Most of the savings on IT was the result of the company’s sourcing strategy. The company wanted to reduce the cost and complexity of working with thousands of IT suppliers. It now has seven IT service providers and has shaken up its supplier management capabilities to ensure it gets the most it can from them.
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Home BP has a big stick to keep suppliers in line and a huge resource to manage them. Not all businesses have this and there is a growing trend for businesses to outsource the service News integration role. “We have several service integrator templates ourselves,” says Lewis at Berwin Leighton Paisner. “So, in a relatively short time, I would expect to see service integra- the 25 most tor/management contracts becoming standardised as well.” influential Forrester analyst Lutz Peichert says service integration is usually an internal responsibility. women in UK IT “Service integration is not a new thing because it has been done by in-house teams for years,” Peichert says, adding that there is now a trend to outsource the role. BP’s move to A hybrid cloud infrastructure Do you know what you want? All suppliers have different stories. This is making it tough for businesses to get exactly what they want but it is critical businesses do so: According to Forrester, 69% of CIOs do editor’s not believe they get what they asked for. comment “But it is not that the supplier is not delivering, but the contract does not reflect reality,” says Peichert. Opinion Understanding what you want and getting this supported in a contract is vital if the service is to live up to expectations. Part of the problem is a disconnect between the business and Buyer’s Guide TO the buyers. Lewis says IT and the wider business functions are not joined-up enough and IT HUMAN RESOURCES services procurement is often divorced from the aims of the business. MANAGEMENT “Procurement functions often determine the services contracted and that may introduce another element into the buying process that is not always helpful, especially where cost is The best way to the only driver. Change as the ultimate good in IT services contracts is overestimated. The present big data problem is more basic - actually getting what the customer thought it was buying in the first to the consumer place,” he says. Even IT experts and not just business buyers are to blame, according to Lewis. “In some strategy for cases, even IT professionals on the customer side go fishing for possible solutions to their outsourcing IT services business problems without knowing what they want or what is out there in the market,” he says. “They then accept the most approximate solution and struggle to adapt it to their busi- ness needs.” Downtime But standardisation is helping. “We have started seeing a level of standardisation in both the legal and commercial terms of IT outsourcing contracts, as well as the service descrip- tions, service levels and even charges schedules. This makes drafting and negotiating deals shorter and less complex,” says Lewis.
The other side is feeling change IT buyers are not alone in feeling change. Suppliers are experiencing a massive shift in outsourcing behaviour and are transforming in response. Sam Kingston, UK head at T-Systems, says there are buying trends that are shaking up IT outsourcing. Businesses are buying smaller modules of service to help them control and lower costs. “Services are being broken up and suppliers are being asked to take on specific parts of IT, rather than end-to-end services,” › Options for outsourcing IT to the cloud says Kingston. This is increasing the number of suppliers used › CW Buyer’s Guide: Outsourcing › Putting innovation on the outsourcing menu and committing less to individual companies. Kingston also says there has been a shift in the key discus- sion with customers. Although he says the trend for suppliers to take on a service at a substantial discount is still alive and well, there is more importance put on improving the user experience. Kingston says emerging trends – such as the increased involvement of business and break- ing up services – is seeing procurement departments grow as IT departments shrink. There are more people involved in the IT services procurement and there are more options available. But there is also more noise, not all of which is helpful. Sourcing skills are valuable assets to any organisation, but even the best are being put to the test when it comes to IT sourcing today. n
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Opinion Note to self: Might not be work-safe... illicit film, the title of which translates into New golden rule for techies: be careful English as The Forbidden Legend: Sex and Buyer’s Guide TO where you plug yourself in. Failure to heed Chopsticks, according to the BBC. HUMAN RESOURCES this could lead to becoming unplugged or The Hong Kong produced film is based MANAGEMENT at the very least unstuck. on the 17th Century Chinese novel The point is perfectly illustrated The Plum in the Golden Vase, which The best way to by a Chinese techie who unwit- Wikipedia notes has a similar present big data tingly shared his proclivity notoriety in Chinese literature to the consumer for banned adult videos with as Lady Chatterley’s Lover. everyone in the main square When the hapless techie strategy for and adjacent railway station was alerted by the owners outsourcing IT services in Jilin City. of the giant display about The engineer was meant to his unintended broadcast, he be repairing a giant LED screen, unplugged his computer and Downtime but appears to have forgotten he threw away the disc. was connected to the display when he But thanks to the wonders of modern took a break. technology, photos of his blunder spread Only after 10 full minutes did he realise quickly after several passers-by posted that he was not the only one viewing the them online. n
Ellison’s cat gets the cream
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is no kitten in the corporate world, but there is no doubt cats are his obsession. Last year’s America’s Cup winner has unveiled his new boat for the upcoming bout in San Francisco Bay in September, the Oracle Team USA 17 catamaran. But you cannot be a pussy if you want to sail this bad boy. Check out the video and see how this 72ft long, 46ft wide and 131ft tall animal doesn’t just cut through the waves but floats above them, purring at speeds of up to 46mph. Ellison may not reach the cloud with this feline, but Read his continued striving to become more like comic book more on the playboy Tony Stark is only going to be boosted if he wins Downtime blog another trophy. Good luck Larry!
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